A B-24 Pilot’s Letters Home
Memoir/WWII History
Date Published: May 27, 2025
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
In this posthumously published collection of letters and postal cards, William “Bill” Hanchett shares his candid experiences as a flight-school cadet, and later as an Army Air Forces pilot in command of a B-24 Liberator bomber during World War II.
Through Bill’s first-hand accounts, we learn that mastering the art of flying during wartime is about more than understanding engine throttle and airspeed. It’s about wondering when you’ll be called to fight and if you’ll be asked to betray your ideals. It’s about working hard and documenting the days, dreaming about the future, and longing for home.
An extraordinary primary document, Disgracefully Easy offers us a rare glimpse inside the military in the 1940s, a time when Americans worried about the fate of their great country and looked to the brave and courageous to deliver them from fear. This unique collection will be long remembered as an important addition to the annals of aviation history.
Disgracefully Easy: A B-24 Pilot’s Letters Home
BOOK EXCERPTS
From the Introduction (747 words)
Before William (Bill) Hanchett became a professor of American History and an authority on the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, my father served as a B-24 four-engine heavy bomber pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) during World War II. This book is a selection of his correspondence written during the war era. The total correspondence consisted of 206 letters and 98 postal cards written from the late 1930s to December 1945. The correspondence has been edited with an introduction to each group of letters.
The letters are divided by each phase of flight training, or flying school, as it was called during the war, to assignment as an instructor-pilot in BT-13 basic trainers, to transition to B-24 heavy bomber pilot training, and subsequent assignment to a B-24 training squadron at Tonopah Field, Nevada. The letters provide first-hand descriptions of flying different airplanes, from the PT-17 primary trainer bi-plane to the B-24 Liberator. All the chapters, except the first, which covers several years before Bill’s enlistment in the AAF, include his letters.
The title Disgracefully Easy comes from a postal card my father wrote on August 19, 1945, ten days after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Bill Hanchett indicated that his military service had been “disgracefully easy” when compared to other servicemen who had served in combat. This assessment reflects my father’s feeling at the end of the war and his awareness of the sacrifices of so many. Through his correspondence, Bill Hanchett tells another side of the history of World War II.
My father kept B-24 flight manuals and booklets published by the U.S. Army Air Forces, describing all phases of flight training and the air fields where he trained. Through the years, dad told me about flying and about his experiences during the war. The discovery of the correspondence as he was dying, combined with his stories, the flight manuals and air field booklets, provided a trove of primary source material.
In the fall of 1944, as he learned to fly the B-24, the correspondence also describes the critical election when President Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for a fourth term against Republican Governor Thomas E. Dewey. Bill’s father supported Dewey, but Bill supported and admired Roosevelt, “our greatest President,” he wrote. That year, Bill found his own political voice—separate from his father. The letters reflect a continuity in American politics and society, with politicians and writers stoking division and promoting controversial conspiracy theories and voter suppression, themes which resonate today.
The correspondence reflects a time when families communicated with each other through handwritten and typed correspondence, which was delivered via “snail mail”—long before email, text messaging or social media were even imagined. The letters are naturally written in language commonly used in the 1940s. The letters are a snapshot in time, of course specific to the Hanchetts, but they also reveal family experiences and situations during the war years that many will recognize and identify with on a personal level.
My father received frequent correspondence from his immediate and his extended family, but as service members do, Bill sometimes complained about the lack of mail from home. He especially enjoyed receiving cookies and other treats. The correspondence sent to my father from his family is unavailable, so we do not know exactly what he heard from home, but from his correspondence we can infer the other side of the “conversation.”
Throughout the correspondence, various family activities and family members and friends are mentioned, and through Bill’s comments and expressed opinions, the reader learns something about them and about him. In some of his letters, my father “lectures” his parents about various things, from politics and finances to even winding a new watch. Bill had a lot to say and at times every blank space on a page—front, back, top, bottom or side—were filled with questions or comments.
Bill joined the U.S. Army Air Forces in October 1942. His correspondence tells the story of basic training in Miami Beach, drilling on a golf course, and his experience in a unique Army Air Forces College Training Detachment (CTD), program where aviation cadets attended college courses while waiting to enter flying school. This experience reinforced his interest in history.
The story also includes some of the instructors and AAF officers who directed the training. Bill discusses them, not always by name, but by rank. End notes are included on several who were influential in his development as a pilot.
From Chapter 9 (504 words)
June 11, 1945
Dear Mother:
By this time, you have seen Ginny [cousin] and know what a swell break I had Saturday night. I won’t tell you the details on how it happened, because I’m sure she will.
You will be glad to hear that Tarry looked wonderful. I don’t remember a time when she looked better. She does not seem thin anymore, though of course she is slight. But her face is much fuller and her hair is almost as beautiful as yours. You, of course, saw her last summer, but I hadn’t seen her, or Gin or Pete [cousins] since they left Evanston.
I introduced Tar and Gin to all the boys, and they have raved about both ever since. Tell Ginny that Frenchy kept talking about her all the way home, till I got sick of telling him about her, what a tennis player she was, etc., and that no, I didn’t think she was engaged to Jim. Jim seems like a swell guy, by the way. It probably wasn’t easy to be with so many army men, all of whom were making eyes at his girl.
I’m hoping to be able to land at Tucson when Wese and Joan [Opperman] are there, but my chances are not good, because I can’t land on such a feeble excuse again. I was called into Colonel’s [Feagin] office this morning to explain myself, which I did without making myself seem too much a fool. But there was obviously no need to land, and I wouldn’t have thought of it if the Groses hadn’t been there.
The attitude being taken here by the section is that “oh, well, he has a good record, and everyone is entitled to goof off once in a while.” But it might not be so easy if I tried to do it again.
The day before Tucson, I had my final instrument check, flying in an overcast for four hours straight, mostly in circles, and under the instrument hood for an hour and a half. In addition, I had beam problems to work, letdowns on the range and with the radio compass, aural null orientation etc. I did well, because I’ve been working on my instruments a lot. I got a grade of excellent, and also was graded excellent as an Airplane Commander.
I know nothing more about what will happen when I finish here the middle of July. But if the latrine is to be trusted, chances of staying with B-24’s are better. Yes, B-24’s will be used a lot against Japan, though chiefly, I think, against the Japs in China, when we get bases in China that is. The reason I might be sent to B-32’s is that it is a larger, new plane, and pilots with a four-engine rating have to be selected to fly them, even as co-pilot …
Regards to all and thank you for your last, all-inclusive letter. Keep up the good work, and don’t pass the buck to anyone. As ever, Bill
About the Authors
Thomas F. Hanchett
Now retired from federal civil service, Thomas Forster Hanchett holds a bachelor’s degree in government and two master’s degrees, one in history and one in public administration. In 2016, after his father Bill’s death, he found over three-hundred letters Bill had written during WWII. Given Tom’s interest in military history, it seemed only natural that he be the one to edit and present his father’s letters in manuscript form. Tom has also written historical and educational articles for various publications. A native Californian, he resides in North San Diego County.
William Hanchett
William “Bill” Hanchett (1922-2016) grew up in a wealthy family in Evanston, Illinois. His father lost his municipal bond company business during the Great Depression, changing their family’s lifestyle drastically. Bill attended Black Mountain College, but his time there was cut short because of World War II. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces, rising from private to second lieutenant, and then to airplane commander of a B-24 Liberator bomber. After the war, he continued his education, worked as a civilian historian for the U.S. Air Force, and taught history for over thirty years at San Diego State University. Bill authored numerous articles and historical books, including The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies (1983). He loved living in San Diego, California, where he spent time sailing on the bay.
Social Media Links
Instagram: @historiantom (Thomas Forster Hanchett)
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